The Vassar Brothers Institute, given to the Poughkeepsie Society of Natural Sciences by the late Matthew Vassar, Jr. and his late brother John Guy Vassar, was dedicated. John Guy Vassar spoke, and founding Vassar College trustee Stephen Buckingham, president of the society’s board, expressed its gratitude. Other speakers were Vassar professor of English Truman Backus, the society’s president, and the eminent American geologist and chemist Thomas Sterry Hunt, who spoke on "Subterranean Circulation."